1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement support system regarding production of products, in which when a problem according to quality of a process or a product, productivity, safety of operations, environments and the like is detected, it can be solved or improved as soon as possible, by previously classifying, analyzing potential malfunction, claims in the market and the like in view of parts constituting the product or manufacturing processes of the product, and taking measures for the problems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to manufacturing and developing a product in a factory, when a problem is detected by malfunction in inspection or claims from the market, production engineers or production designers skilled in the art investigate the cause of the problem based on experience or knowledge regarding the product and improve the product each time. When the problem lines in the process, the process may be improved and when the problem lies in the product, the product is exchanged, for example to be improved.
As measures for improving the above problem, methods called process FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) and design FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) are employed in many fields (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-78376, for example). According to the process FMEA, a table in which malfunction generation patterns to be expected are extracted and a process, a function, a phenomenon, an influence, a cause and measures for each malfunction generation pattern are listed (process analytical data (a kind of manual)) is formed before production is started, and when malfunction is detected at the time of production, the problem is immediately improved with reference to the manual. In addition, according to the design FMEA, a table in which malfunction generation patterns to be expected are extracted, each malfunction generation pattern is classified to a unit, a module, or a part of the product and a phenomenon, an influence, a cause, measures and the like peculiar to the malfunction are listed (design analytical data (a kind of manual)) is formed before the product is manufactured and when malfunction is detected at a stage of product developing or manufacturing, the problem is immediately improved with reference to the manual.
As described above, according to the conventional method in which the production engineers or the product designers skilled in the art try to improve the problem every time it happens, the skilled person has to be stationed. Needless to say, it is necessary to considerably acquire experience to be skilled, and it is not easy to collect the necessary number of skilled people when production is started. In addition, if many skilled people are stationed, the cost is surely increased.
In addition, according to the FMEA method, although it is improved to be effective in many fields, there is a problem in response when the malfunction is detected. That is, it is necessary to specify a corresponding pattern among many malfunction patterns previously provided when the malfunction is generated after the system is started. This specification is not always easy and in the present situation, previously provided many patterns have to be examined to investigate its cause every time the malfunction is detected.